Identification Guide

to the Fossils of
Guadalupe Mountains
National Park

Mary Carol Coleman and Cameron Coleman

PREFACE

This Identification Guide to the Fossils of the Guadalupe

Mountains has been compiled in the hope that it will help visitors
gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the mountains as
they are today and of the sea, plants, and animals that formed them
so many millions of years ago.

We hope that the increased knowledge this volume can provide

will lead to an enhanced reverence for and protection of this unique
and fragile resource.

This guide is not intended to be comprehensive, but includes the

fossils that would most frequently be found.


WHY STUDY THE ROCKS?

Scientists don’t just study the rocks and their fossils to learn about
ancient life and long-passed environments. For decades the rocks
and fossils of the Guadalupe Mountains and Delaware Mountains
to the south have been studied by geologists in an attempt to better
understand how petroleum deposits were formed and how to tap
into those deposits. The extensive oil fields of the west Texas
Permian Basin were developed primarily by applying what was
learned from these studies. Petroleum deposits have and are being
found today in many other regions of the world because of geology
lessons learned here.

PROTECTION OF THE FOSSILS

The Guadalupe Mountains are a world-class example of a

marine reef of the Permian period. Our study of the fossils here
is an attempt to step back into a time that will always partially
remain a mystery to us. Most of the plants and animals that have
turned into rock are long since extinct. We can never know the
reef as it was when it was filled with living creatures, bathed in
ancient seawater. However, by painstaking, prolonged study of the
rocks that remain, some of the secrets of the life of the reef and the
surrounding sea are being revealed to us.

The fossils that are here have meaning only in the context of the
land from which they came. We ask that you respect and care for
the fossils by leaving them where you find them. Every fossil or
rock that is illegally removed from the Park is a potential loss of
a piece of the puzzle. Penalties for removal of or damage to any
rocks in the park can include fines of up to $5000 and six months
in jail. Damage includes scratching names or dates or pounding
with other rocks.

Please report anyone damaging or removing fossils to park

rangers. 
GEOLOGIC HISTORY

The Guadalupe Mountains originated as a marine reef in the

Permian Period – 280 to 250 million years ago. Most of the earth’s
land mass at that time was united in the supercontinent of Pangaea
(meaning “all lands”). What is now western Texas lay near the
western edge of Pangaea and was at the time about 5 degrees north
of the equator. The collision of the continents during the formation
of Pangaea had caused a large area to warp downward to form the
Permian Basin and seawater had filled this basin. The marine reef
grew along the edges of a portion of this seaway that we today call
the Delaware Sea. Over millions of years the reef became a mas-
sive structure about 400 miles in length, completely encircling the
edges of the deep Delaware Basin.

The reef was formed by many organisms that are extinct today,
even though most do have living relatives. Unlike modern reefs
which are composed primarily of colonial corals, the predominant
organisms of the Capitan Reef were many different kinds of spong-
es. Numerous species of algae, bryozoans, cephalopods, crinoids,
trilobites, brachiopods, horn corals, and fusulinids also lived on
this reef. As these organisms died, they left a skeletal framework,
cemented together by algae, on which their successors could con-
tinue to grow. The reef thus gradually built upward and outward
into the deep basin, being further hardened by the precipitation of
calcium carbonate from seawater.

Over time, waves washed billions of organisms off the surface

of the reef and unstable sections of the reef broke off. These large
and small fragments slid down the reef front, forming a slope
below the reef called the forereef. The reef also grew high enough
to block free flow of seawater behind it, so a shallow lagoon was
formed that stretched for ten miles between the reef and the shore.
High evaporation rates in this equatorial climate caused minerals in
the waters of the lagoon to become concentrated and deposit layers
of rock called dolomite. 
 Toward the end of the Permian Period, the Delaware Sea be-
gan to dry up, the reef died, and the basin filled in with salts and
sediments. The dead reef was buried, and the plants and animals
that had lived and died there over millions of years were encased
and turned into rock, as well as deposits of petroleum. Soon after,
some form of cataclysmic event caused the Permian Extinction,
in which 95% of all life on earth perished. Many of the types of
organisms that had built the reef became extinct.

About six million years ago, shifts in the earth’s crust along
fault lines caused the long-buried reef to be lifted upward to its
present position. Exposed to weather, the salts and softer sedi-
ments were washed away, leaving the ancient reef towering over
the basin floor. During the last Ice Age, large amounts of rushing
water carved canyons through the reef, revealing it in cross-section
and shaping the Guadalupe Mountains as we know them today.


Algae
Fossil identification
• Looks like thin, multiple, uniform layers; may be straight,
tightly curved, or stacked
• May surround another organism
• Sometimes looks like a sliced cabbage head
• Found in reef or forereef, on sides of canyons or
Southeast escarpment

Biological Data
• Belong to a very large group of simple plants lacking
roots, stems, and leaves
• Blue-green algae probably ancestral to all higher plants
• Includes seaweeds
• About a dozen types of algal fossils identified in the
Guadalupes
• All genera found here now extinct


Algae

algae - Archaeolithoporella

algae - Collenella 
Algae

algae - Archaeolithoporella

algae - Archaeolithoporella 
Ammonoids
Fossil Identification
• Coiled in one plane with internal chambers
• Chamber partitions are wavy or complicated
• Sometimes hard to distinguish from a nautiloid if the
partitions are not readily visible
• Internal canal present but not easily visible
• Found in many places, but always uncommon

Biological Data
• Survived the Permian Extinction but became extinct
along with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago
• Were a type of cephalopod, related to squids and octopi
• Had a chambered shell, into which they pumped gas to
rise or descend in the water
• Tentacles seized prey and held it to jaws
• Important in identifying the age of rocks worldwide

Exterior - without visible partitions

10
Ammonoids

Interior - with partitions

Interior - with partitions and furrows 11

Ammonoids

vertical cross section

12
Lurking Ammonoid - partially obscured by rock
Ammonoids

horizontal cross section

13
Nautiloids
Fossil Identification
• Coiled in one plane with internal chambers
• Chamber partitions gently curved; not wavy
• Partitions relatively close together
• Sides may be smooth or with regularly placed bumps
• Internal canal often present and located more centrally
that in ammonoids
• Found mainly in reef just below crests of ridgelines and
canyon walls

Biological Data
• Still represented today in the Chambered Nautilus
• Soft anatomy similar to ammonoids

External mold showing bumps and preserving a portion of the body

cavity (right) 14
Nautiloids

Vertical cross section showing interior partitions and open chambers

partial cross section showing open chambers, filled chambers, and

15
internal canal (marked with arrow)
Nautiloids

horizontal cross section - note central position of canal (marked with

arrow)

cross section - with canal (marked by arrow) 16

gastropods
Fossil Identification
• Coiled snail
• Lacks cross chambers of ammonoid and nautiloid
• Coiling often in more than one plane

Biological Data
• Still exist today as snails, whelks, and conchs
• Is a mollusc with a head, a foot, and a coiled shell
• Branch of ancestral form probably evolved into nautiloids
• Feed by grazing on algae, decaying organisms, or
bacterial slime

cross section - note lack of chambers/partitions 17

gastropods

Original color stripes preserved 18

gastropods

cross section - no chambers/partitions

vertical cross section 19

Brachiopods
Fossil Identification
• Bivalve; bilaterally symmetrical
• Often with strong, radiating ridges
• Common
• Can occur in large clusters
• Found mainly on the mountain flanks, or in the foothills;
can often be found in washes

Biological Data
• Have living representatives living in oceans
• All but one group died out during Permian Extinction
• Attach to substrate by stout muscular stalk at posterior
end
• Feed by action of cilia sweeping minute organisms into
mouth
• Sometimes found in large clusters

20
Brachiopods

Collemataria - “Dead Men’s Chests”

21
Brachiopods

22
Brachiopods

A cluster of several kinds of brachiopods; all partially exposed

a bed of brachiopods 23
pelecypods
Fossil Identification
• Bivalve; not bilaterally symmetrical
• An example – an oyster or typical beach shells
• Not common; but when found occur mostly in reef and
shelf rocks directly above reef high on canyon and
escarpment slopes

Biological Data
• Modern-day representatives are clams, oysters, and
scallops
• Most burrow in sand or mud using fleshy foot
• Few attach to substrate like mussels
• Feed by filtering microorganisms out of water or mud

an “oyster” type - very rare 24

pelecypods

an “ark” type

burrowing clam 25
bryozoans
Biological Data
• Have living representatives living in oceans
• Colonial animals form structures containing thousands of
identical individuals
• Each individual lives in separate protective case
• Colony grows by budding
• May appear plant-like or net-like
• Ciliated tentacles emerge from opening to sweep water
into mouth, filtering out
• microorganisms

26
bryozoans Encrusting
Fossil Identification
• Lots of small, closely packed regular tubes surrounding
another organism

Bryozoan completely surrounding a sponge (Colospongia)

27
bryozoans Encrusting

Bryozoan encrusting top of branched sponge

Bryozoan encrusting granular material 28

bryozoans Fenestrate
Fossil Identification
• Net-like appearance; small, regular chambers
• Can spread out and appear fan-like or funnel shaped

29
bryozoans Fenestrate

30
bryozoans Ramose
Fossil Identification
• Looks like lots of small radiating tubes

red arrow points to a Colospongia; yellow arrow indicates the bryozoan

31
bryozoans Stick-shaped
Fossil Identification
• looks like a spiny stick

red arrow points to sponge; yellow arrow indicates Bryozoan

32
Corals Horn corals
Fossil Identification
• Single animal; not colonial
• Appears as numerous blades or plates that radiate
outward from central area which may be open or filled
• Blades get thicker as they approach outer walls
• Small plates may connect the blades
• Exterior may show numerous parallel lines
• Horizontal central chambers may be present
• Cross section can be ¼ to 1 ¼ inch

Biological Data
• Died out during Permian Extinction
• A coelenterate, distantly related to modern corals and
jellyfish
• Anchored itself to sea floor or substrate
• Algae in tissues secrete hard protective horn-shaped
skeleton

33
Corals Horn corals

cross section

34
Corals Horn corals

cross section 35
Corals Tabulate
Fossil Identification
• Looks like small wasp nest; ¼ to ½” diameter; spherical
shape
• Cells are approximately 1/8” across; larger than bryozoan
cells (bryozoan cells are smaller and more uniform in size
and position)
• Cells may be covered with flat cap and are polygonal in
shape
• Colonial coral

Biological Data
• Extinct
• Distantly related to modern corals and jellyfish
• Formed dime-sized globular colonies that attached high
on other organisms
• Only colonial coral found on Capitan Reef

36
Corals Tabulate

yellow arrow points out coral; rest of rock is sponges

37
Crinoids
Fossil Identification
• May occur as numerous individuals in large patch
• Sectioned stem
• Branching head is not usually found
• Usually solid, crystalline calcite
• Cross section appears amorphous in texture

Biological Data
• An echinoderm, distantly related to starfish, sea urchins,
and sand dollars
• Attach by stalk to substrate
• Skeleton consists of close-fitted plates, each being a
single flat calcite crystal
• Have rare modern representatives, inhabiting deep sea
bottoms
• Have a nervous system and a one-way digestive tract
• Use branched arms to filter small organisms from water

38
Crinoids

39
Crinoids

40
Echinoids
Fossil Identification
• Sea urchins
• Balls of plates with long spines

Biological Data
• Have modern representatives in sea urchins and sand
dollars
• Related to starfish and crinoids
• Have long, sharp spines and close-fitted plates enclosing
soft body parts
• Mouth in center of lower surface
• Move with tube feet which project through holes
• Graze on vegetation and dead material

yellow arrow points to body; red arrow points to spines

41
Echinoids

spine 42
fusulinids
Fossil Identification
• Single cell organism covered with porous shell
• Look like large grains of rice
• Found in large numbers at the top of the reef; higher
elevations
• Complex internal structures

Biological Data
• Died out during Permian extinction
• Living relatives known as Foraminifera
• Single-celled protozoan which secretes a mineral shell
• Pseudopods extended out through porous shell to absorb
food and provide locomotion
• Millions lived on landward side of reef

43
fusulinids

44
fusulinids

45
scaphopods
Fossil Identification
• Looks like a hollow tusk
• Most likely found near ridge crests or in the foothills
• In cross section, looks like round tubes

Biological Data
• Living representatives called tusk shells
• Protective shell consists of a long, tapering, hollow tube
• Type of mollusc, burrowing in mud or sand using
muscular foot
• Have filaments which capture prey

46
scaphopods

Yellow arrow notes scaphopod; red arrows point to attached sponge

47
sponges
Biological Data
• Members of phylum Porifera, which originated 700 million
years ago
• Most primitive of multicellular animals
• Have bag-like bodies open at one end and attached to
substrate at the other
• Water enters through minute pores by action of flagella
• Nutrient material suspended in water enters specialized
cells for digestion
• Water exits through main opening or several smaller
openings
• Over sixty different kinds identified as part of Capitan
Reef
• All genera found as fossils in Capitan Reef are now
extinct

48
 sponges Amblysiphonella

Fossil Identification
• Sponges can be found almost anywhere in the park,
but are most obvious in the reef high on canyon and
escarpment slopes
• Looks like stacked inner tubes
• Common sponge; often found with Lemonea nearby
• Long tubular central canal

yellow arrow notes stacked inner tube appearance; red arrow points out
cross section with central canal
49
 sponges Amblysiphonella

note stacked rings with central canal

50
 sponges Amblysiphonella

group of three; weathered, showing characteristic rings 51

sponges Colospongia
Fossil Identification
• Looks like stack of kidney beans
• No central canal
• Pores in chamber walls
• Fairly uncommon
• Chambers appear more expanded than an
amblysiphonella

52
sponges Colospongia

close up of above photo 53

sponges Colospongia

54
sponges Cystauletes
Fossil Identification
• Elongated bubble clusters; about 3/4” or less in diameter
• No central canal
• Side view reveals no more than 3 rows of bubbles
• Fairly common

55
sponges Cystauletes

56
sponges Discosiphonella
Fossil Identification
• Elongated bubble clusters; 1” or more in diameter
• Distinct central canal in cross section
• Side view reveals 5 or more rows of bubbles
• Fairly common

57
sponges Discosiphonella

Individual with “buds” 58

sponges Discosiphonella

cross section

59
sponges Gigantospongia
Fossil Identification
• Found at higher elevations, near the top of the reef
• Looks very “spongy”
• Can be large and sprawling; may wrap around the rock
• 1/2 to 1” thick and up to 3 feet long
• No central canal

60
sponges Gigantospongia

giganto bud 61
sponges Gigantospongia

more young “buds” 62

Sponges Girtycoelia
Fossil Identification
• Single chain of balls; rarely branches
• Small tubular central canal connects the balls
• Relatively uncommon
• Usually found as isolated individuals
• Averages 2” in length

63
Sponges Guadalupia
Fossil Identification
• Can spread to a broad, flat, fan-like shape
• Can look like stacked bananas in cross section
• Exterior looks like a broad patch of fish scales; scales
don’t change shape at the edges
• Was a flat sponge, as opposed to Lemonea, which was
cylindrical
• No central canal
• Moderately abundant

64
Sponges Guadalupia

65
Sponges Guadalupia

66
Sponges Heliospongia
Fossil Identification
• Circular with discontinuous canals radiating out from
center
• Small central canal
• Uncommon
• Up to 2 1/2” diameter

67
Sponges Heliospongia

68
Sponges Lemonea
Fossil Identification
• Cone-shaped or multiple cones connected end to end
• Small chambers which are tightly packed, long, slender,
and curved (like very tiny bananas)
• Cross section looks like ring of radiating bananas around
central channel
• Channel filled with irregular canals, not sediment
• May form branched colonies
• Average size: ½”diameter; 2 to 8” length; but ranges to 1
¼” in width to 14” in length
• Most common sponge found in almost any reef elevation

69
Sponges Lemonea

70
 Sponges Lemonea

cross section

red arrows note scratch mark defacement 71

Sponges “Race Cars”
Fossil Identification
• Grew near the top of the reef probably in the surf
• Some have corrugated surface appearance
• Tend to be large and bulky; 2 inches or more thick, and
very broad
• Uncommon
• Found at higher elevations

72
Sponges “Race Cars”

73
Sponges “Race Cars”

74
 Sponges Rhabdactinia
Fossil Identification
• Relatively rare
• Fan-shaped with numerous canals running upwards from
base of fan
• Narrow stacked rings of increasing diameter
• If one is found in an area, there may be others nearby

75
Sponges Rhabdactinia

76
Sponges Rhabdactinia

77
Sponges Sheiia
Fossil Identification
• Circular with continuous, very straight, radiating canals
• Very small central canal
• Rare

78
Sponges Sollasia
Fossil Identification
• Chain of small spheres
• No tubular central canal
• Uncommon

79
Sponges Sollasia

80
Sponges Sollasiella
Fossil Identification
• Looks like Sollasia, but smaller and chambers are more
oval

81
82
Sponges Unidentified

83
Sponges Unidentified

“earthworm” sponge - cross section of a plate-like sponge

branching type 84
Sponges Unidentified

cross section

a “spongy” sponge 85
Sponges Unidentified

“vase” sponges in cross section

“vase” sponges in cross section 86

Sponges Unidentified

“vase” sponge in cross section

“vase” sponges - arrow indicates individual in vertical section 87

Sponges Unidentified

Vertical section of branching “vase” sponge

88
trilobites
Fossil Identification
• Rarely found here; if found, note location
• Segmented arthropod

Biological Data
• Type of arthropod with no living descendants
• Lived 600-250 million years ago, ending at Permian Ex-
tinction
• Segmented bodies, each segment with two pairs of limbs
for walking, swimming, breathing, and handling food
• Predator ranging widely across reef and capturing small
prey by stirring up sediment
• Earliest known animal with efficient eyes
• Horseshoe crab probably distantly related

89
trilobites

Trilobite tail - weathered almost to cross section 90

 1

inches
2